The Family BusinessThe story of Tony’s Colonial is the story of one family, two continents and a love of simple, delicious Italian food. Tony and Gina DiCicco took over the Atwells Avenue store in 1969, after emigrating from Italy and landing in Providence. “This is a little piece of Italy that I brought with me,” Gina says. “I love passing that on to our customers.” Now, what started as a simple deli carrying Italian foods is a specialty store - “the kind of store we were accustomed to in Italy,” Gina says - carrying the best Italian imports around and serving incredibly delicious prepared foods. Not only that, but three generations of the DiCicco family work at Tony’s Colonial, and you can still see Gina working the register, speaking Italian to staff and customers, and offering her kind smile to people every day. She says, “We’re so proud to be part of family food traditions for three generations now.”

The Best of the Old WorldWhat sets Tony’s Colonial apart from the other Italian specialty stores on Federal Hill (aside from the attached parking lot, which is a huge plus on Atwells Avenue) is their carefully chosen selection of foods. “All of our products are really high quality and upscale,” says Gina. While it’s easy to be overwhelmed by the huge selection at bigger stores - as anyone who’s been to New York’s Eataly can attest - it’s much easier to choose at Tony’s, where the boutique atmosphere of the store helps make sure that everything is worth a taste. They carry high end olive oils and vinegars (think 50 year old Balsamic vinegar, and Balsamic with truffles), Italian sweets like torrone with chocolate or pistachios, and unique dried pastas from Italy, including fettucine with chestnut, one made with Montepulciano wine, and flavors like saffron, lemon and porcini mushroom. Salumi like Parma prosciutto, soppresata, bresaola and mortadella with pistachios are sliced to order, and you can try any of the specialty cheeses before you buy them: think sheep’s milk smoked truffle cheese, lemon ricotta cotta, burrata, taleggio, extra sharp provolone, aged Parmigiano Reggiano and mascarpone torta with apricots and chocolate.

Leave the Cooking to Them: Tony’s offers catering trays of their most popular items, like lasagna, eggplant or chicken parmesan and sausage and peppers.

Gluten Free Pasta and more: Tony’s carries gluten-free products from Italy like pasta made from lentils and peas.